As US President Donald Trump’s deadline is fast approaching for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face the bombing of the country’s infrastructure, Iran on Tuesday urged young people to form human chains at power plants and its president said 14 million people had answered calls to volunteer to fight.
Trump has threatened to bomb all of Iran’s energy plants and bridges if Iran does not meet his Tuesday deadline of 8 pm ET to allow shipping to fully resume in the waterway, through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes in peacetime.
“The whole country could be taken out overnight,” Trump said. Trump has repeatedly extended deadlines in the past, but suggested this would be the last, saying he had already given Iran enough extra time.
Shortly before the deadline, renewed US and Israeli airstrikes hit targets across the country, killing at least three people.
Israel’s military said it attacked Iran’s Shiraz petrochemical complex, for the second day in a row, hitting an offshore plant in the South Pars natural gas field. Israel also issued a Farsi-language warning telling Iranians to avoid trains, throughout the day, of possible targeted strikes on the rail network.
Another strike hit the Khorramabad International Airport in western Iran, while a strike in an undisclosed location in Alborz province, northwest of Tehran, killed 18 people, according to media reports.
Avoid trains, Israel warns
Israel’s military has warned Iranians in Farsi to avoid taking trains throughout the day, possibly telegraphing plans for strikes on the rail network.
“Your presence endangers your life,” read a warning posted on X.
Iran stopped a ship in the Strait of Hormuz after Israel and the US attacked in Feb. 28, they started the war. It has already rejected the proposal for a 45-day ceasefire and said it wants the war to end once and for all.
In a fiery speech, US President Donald Trump said Iran could be kicked out overnight if it does not meet a deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials rejected the proposal for a temporary ceasefire and called Trump a ‘trickster.’
Iran stopped the ship after Israel and the US attacked it on Feb. 28, they started a war. On Monday, Tehran rejected a proposal for a 45-day ceasefire and said it wanted a permanent end to the war.
With the deadline hours away, Iran showed no signs of backing down when President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X that 14 million Iranians had responded to media and message campaigns urging people to volunteer to fight in the event of an attack on the US and Israel – double the previous figures.
“More than 14 million Iranians have declared their readiness to sacrifice their lives,” Pezeshkian wrote. “I have been, I am, and I will always be ready to give my life for Iran.”
Iran attacks Saudi Arabia
Earlier on Tuesday, Tehran launched seven missiles at Saudi Arabia, where authorities said there was debris on the ground near energy facilities when it was intercepted. Spokesman for the Ministry of Defense Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki said the damage was being assessed.
The attack prompted Saudi Arabia to close the King Fahd Causeway, a bridge connecting Saudi Arabia with the island kingdom of Bahrain, for several hours. The 25-kilometer bridge is the only road connection from Bahrain, home of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, to the Arabian Peninsula.
Elsewhere, activists reported a new wave of strikes in Tehran, for which Israel later claimed responsibility. Nine people were killed in the city of Shahriar and six others in Pardis in other airstrikes, Iranian media reported.
Iran fired back at Israel, with reports of missiles landing in Tel Aviv and Eilat.
Israel says it hit a key Iranian petrochemical facility, killed the intelligence chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and hit the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran – a facility the US and Israel say is helping Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran’s attack on the energy infrastructure of its Gulf Arab neighbors, coupled with its seizure of the Strait of Hormuz, has driven up oil prices and created global economic problems.
In early trading, Brent crude, the international standard, was above $111 US per barrel, up more than 50 percent since the war began.
Under mounting pressure at home as consumers feel the pinch, Trump has demanded that Iran open the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping or see power plants and bridges destroyed.
The threat to strike civilian infrastructure has sparked widespread warnings about possible war crimes.
Iran has built human chains in the past near its nuclear sites during periods of high tension with the West.
The Revolutionary Guard general urged parents to send their children to man checkpoints, which have been repeatedly targeted in airstrikes.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned the US that attacks on civilian infrastructure are prohibited under international law, according to his spokesman. Trump, speaking to reporters, said he was “not at all concerned” about committing a war crime with such an attack.
As the deadline loomed, efforts continued to reach a negotiated settlement. Although Iran has rejected the latest proposal from the US, officials involved in diplomacy say that negotiations are still ongoing.
